ons to announce to his government that the domestic differences
"in the great American Union" were deepening into so fierce a feud
that from different motives both General Cass the Secretary of
State, to whom his letter had been addressed, and Mr. Trescott the
Assistant Secretary of State, by whom it had been answered, had
resigned, and that the United States, one "of the two great nations
which represent the enterprise, the civilization, and the constitutional
liberty of the same great race," was about to confront the gravest
danger that can threaten national existence.

The State of South Carolina passed its Ordinance of Secession
December 17, 1860. From that date until the surrender of Fort
Sumter, April 14, 1861, many of the most patriotic and able statesmen
of the country and a large majority of the people of the North
hoped that some reasonable and peaceful adjustment of the difficulties
would be found. The new Administration had every right to expect
that foreign powers would maintain the utmost reserve, both in
opinion and in action, until it could have a fair opportunity to
decide upon a policy. The great need of the new President was
time. Both he and his advisers felt that every day's delay was a
substantial gain, and that the maintenance of the _status quo_,
with no fresh outbreak at home and no unfriendly expression aborad,
was of incalculable advantage to the cause of the Union.

Amid the varying and contradictory impressions of the hour, Lord
Lyons had reported events as they occurred, with singular fairness
and accuracy. Just one month before Mr. Lincoln was inaugurated,
on the 4th of February, 1861, His Lordship wrote to Lord John
Russell, at that time Her Majesty's Minister of Foreign Affairs:
"Mr. Seward's real view of the state of the country appears to be
that if bloodshed can be avoided until the new government is
installed, the seceding States will in no long time return to the
Confederation. He seems to think that in a few months the evils
and hardships produced by secession will become intolerably grievous
to the Southern States, that they will be completely re-assured as
to the intentions of the Administration, and that the conservative
element which is now kept under the surface by the violent pressure
of the Secessionists will emerge with irresistible force. From
all these causes he confidently expects that when elections for
the State Legislatures are held in the Southern States in